Right when November hit, the Boston Celtics were on a three-game losing streak. After the 128-114 loss to the Chicago Bulls, Marcus Smart expressed his concerns with how the Celtics' stars were playing.
He called out stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for not passing the ball as much as he would like them to. Smart has never been one to keep his emotions to himself. Although, this time it came with some consequences. Tensions rose within the organization as Tatum and Brown were not happy about the statement. The team formed a players-only meeting that seemed to have worked because the Celtics are 6-3 since those comments.
The team is starting to get back on track and looked really good against the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night. All the drama is in the past and that is exactly where Smart wants it to be.
“New coach, relatively new team, new roles, trying to get that chemistry together on both ends,” Smart told reporters after the game, per MassLive. “Within the players, the coaches, the coaches within themselves, the players within themselves, we’re human. Things aren’t going to go as perfectly as we planned.”
Things certainly went as planned Friday night against the Lakers. The team was without Brown but Smart scored 22 points with eight rebounds and six assists. Tatum scored 37 points and had 11 rebounds to go along with it. Dennis Schroder scored 21 points against his former team and the Celtics blew the Lakers out 130-108. The defense between Smart and Schroder played very well against the Lakers' stars.
Smart had more words after the win that correlated back to his previous comments.
“It’s what you do when things go that way that you don’t think they should go. Not how you react to it and I think we’ve been reacting really well. I think we had some turmoil early on, that’s part of it, just trying to figure out a way to get each other going. And we’re doing it, it’s coming along. Obviously, we still have a lot of work to do, but we’re on the right path.”
The Celtics certainly do seem like they are on the right path as of late. Their next game is Saturday, Nov. 2o against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The game starts at 7:30 ET and it is the second of a four-game homestand.
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